Excuse Me!

Covered Body in the Pickup.
I hate to interrupt, but one of the South Korean hostages in Afghanistan has been excecuted. It's not on Yahoo news when I log in, and so I went to CNN dot com.
Here's what was there:

Latest News
Vick pleads not guilty to dogfight charges
FBI head, Gonzales differ on hospital showdown
NASA suspects space-bound kit sabotaged
Men framed by FBI for murder to get millions
Family tries avoiding everything 'Made in China' (by the way, CNN, the Corporate News Network, is on a Jihad lately against China, that's another entry...yes I know there are concerns, but the news coverage is laughable. I mean look at this...it's not even about the issues, it's about scaring people- How To Avoid Chinese Products...shame)
Report: Drunk astronauts allowed on shuttle
Gene therapy patient dies; trial shut down
CNNMoney: Dow suffers 2nd worst day of 2007
KPHO: Man accused of Tom Cruise extortion plot
Ticker: Clinton on Obama: This is getting 'silly'
Pilots blamed for Kentucky plane crash
High-speed pursuit ends in a fiery crash
500-pound man told he's too fat to adopt
Big, odd and useless projects that failed
CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories

OK, this is distressing. So I clicked on the international CNN page:

Here is the international page for CNN
Top Stories
Afghans enter hostage negotiations
Tour rolls on in shadow of scandal
Thousands arrested in Zimbabwe
Men framed by FBI get millions
Blast at desert spaceport kills 2
Pilots blamed in Comair crash
Wires cut in space-bound computer
9/11 rescue dog dies of cancer
Drunk astronauts 'let on shuttle'
Emotions flow after nurses return
CNN Wire: Updates on world's top stories

Excuse me, but what?
The Bush administration promised that they were going to Iraq to fight "them over there". So people said, "How come Iraq? I thought Afghanistan..."
"Shhh" they said, "You don't love America."
"Mr. Bush, are you going after Osama Bin Laden?"
"Saddam Hussein is a bad guy."
"Yes, we knew that when you put him in his regime...any way...Osama.."
"You hate America. We are fighting them over there."

One day back in the Clinton administration, Bill bombed Afghanistan. Remember? Or maybe we don't remember because that was during zippergate. People said, oh, look wag the dog. Well, no Afghanistan was important zippergate was not.

He was bombing Osama Bin Laden's hideout and missed him. He had no support as the country was torn apart by Kenneth Starr's Whitewater rampage that ended in nothing useful whatsoever for anyone. Bill left office, and passed on the documents to Bush about what was up with Bad Boy Bin Laden. We know what happened next. Nothing, and then something...9/11

Now ITS NOT EVEN NEWS that the Taliban in Afghanistan continually kidnap and sometimes excecute people.
So HOW about fighting them OVER THERE?

LIARS

Go get these people, or you're over there for nothing.
Oh yeah, we already knew that.


Why are South Korean troops in Afghanistan? You think SOUTH KOREA has some beef with the Middle East? They're supporting US troops. I see in the news today that there is fighting going on there, and some Taliban have been taken out...and some NATO troops have gone down.

My question is, at the very least, why is this not a big news story in the US?
The US is the one that should be busting those hostages out or negotiating. I know that I don't fully understand the current Afghanistan situation, but I know that it's our beef (US) and others are supporting the cause. Shouldn't they be helped?

LIARS Bush, Cheney and the whole Lot of you.

Tough Morning

Warning: I've got biting humor at the moment, if you don't like that, you'll want to skip this post.
New class today at 8:30 am. In the first class I find out what levels I'm dealing with and prepare to adjust accordingly. I have a memorized vocabulary of basic English words that almost all students know when they arrive, no matter what their level.

The first class I use common vocabulary in short sentences. I make sure that even without verbal cues, the conversation is manageable, meaning my questions relate to each other, follow a logical sequence, no non-sequitir curve balls.

Yeah.

No. This group does not know English. They also managed to tap into my pet peeve of not following logic, which is a separate issue than a language barrier. I'm not able to get into details without being lengthy, I wish I could give concrete examples.

Student:"The Philippines?"
In my mind: No, we've completely changed the subject in the last five words and now all of a sudden without explaining myself, I'm talking about London.

Student:"North Korea?"
Me-in my mind: Why would I think that you served your military duty IN NORTH KOREA? Why would I think that?

The consolation of incidents like these is that there's always at least one other student with a facial expression that betrays shock, so at least it's not just me. Communication frustrations get us where it hurts, there are very few things in life more emotional. Long story short, we all lived through it.

I'm going to have to choose our lowest level conversation book for this group. And I've got a student who chose the name Arnold for himself because of you-know-who. He reminded me that he's the governor of you-know-where. Yeah, I know where. I used to live there. That's my state.

You know, every once in a while I get a student that's like this: If people in his country made it a habit to strangle newborn infants and then use the carcass as a football until the intestines fall out, and then cook them into a tasty dish, he would say: "Well that's a tradition in my country.", proudly. And this same type of student is the one who brought up the subject in the first place, trying to corner me into an opinion he may not like. Newsflash for ya honey,I don't care what traditions are in my country, so guess what?- I don't care what they are in yours either. I didn't bring it up, and I'm not trying to change you. If you don't want my opinion, don't ask for it. There are some Korean things for which I'll be adopting a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.

Yeah, well you know what? This is a tradition in my country:

You know who this is, right? He's the president of you-know-where. I know that every Korean I've met hates him, he likes to invade other countries and attempt take-overs for control of natural resources no matter what anyone thinks, and include the soldiers of innocent countries like South Korea, but you know what? That's a tradition in my country. And there's your salute in the above photo.

Ok, Ok, done. Even students like that end up being likable for 100 other reasons, I don't sweat it. Just today I thought I'd blog it because it's bothering me at the moment.

I've got a student leaving this weekend who I'm really really going to miss. Erk.

Angry Me

Well, I just got through searching through blogs regarding Koreans studying in the Philippines, and I'm disturbed. There's one article out there insinuating that Korean English students come here for prostitution and drug use. That's some self-proclaimed genius' point of view that probably has very little basis in reality, and with the students that I know, it has no basis in reality.

The actual post title in question is too vulgar to put here, but I almost want to post it here. I'll just answer what it was in reference to.

First off, Philippine girls have higher moral practices than an American would think (I'm American, so I'll speak to that.). The average age for sex here is 18 and older. Now, I'm not an idiot, I'm sure that's changing over time, but I believe it because I've been here almost 2 years. I see how things go. People here don't actually have much privacy. Homes are occupied with several family members and within those homes, the rooms offer little privacy, and the common culture is conservative regarding younger people and girlfriend/boyfriend stuff. I know things happen everywhere, but to characterize underage girls here as easy and sleeping with foreigners is highly prejudiced and wrong. Now, if the person that wrote that is actually Philippino, ok, then he's like someone I know here at work who exaggerates and has a different lifestyle than your average Philippino person.

That's just the begining. The person suggested that South Koreans come here to study English to have sex with teenagers and smoke pot, and are now accostomed to prostitutes. ERGH. There are prostitutes here, but even they are a bit on the tame side, and they are older people, not teenagers. Although some of the students here have gone to a questionable location in Batangas, all was on the up and up. By the way, both Korean and Philippino people don't believe in secrets, they blab all.

As far as drugs go, you've got to be kidding me. Drugs are not as common as I thought they woud be here. There's a certain way that law enforcement works that leads me to believe drugs should be everywhere. I KNOW there are drugs here, but the rich kids do them from time to time, it's not a given that any students would run into the availability. BUT that's not what bugs me the most. Drugs are extremely rare in Korea. Students don't just step off the plane and all of a sudden feel comfortable enough to engage in illegal activity that they aren't familiar with especially here. Some of the students are scared of the Philippines. "Philippines not safe for Koreans!" They tell eachother urban legends of the Korean who was murdered here and there...lots of urban legends, I roll my eyes. Although some of them might be true. Don't try and tell me that students come here and get addicted to prostitutes and pot. Oh, and you know what else? Students told me that if you're a Korean and you're caught doing drugs overseas, you will be prosecuted back at home as well!

I'm sure that occasionally a student has paid for a date or tried some strange cigarette, but that's not what was implied by the blog entry. I don't know if the writer was American, but I feel like mentioning that America is now the bottom of the barrel for sex and drugs and Americans should not feel like they are going to visit another country for something worse. A certian district in Thailand, ok, but your average Thai girl is going to want to be your friend and maybe catch a foreign husband. And that's another thing, the girls here are keenly interested in foreign men, but to fulfill their hopes of a married secure life, not ever thinking that they would be used as a toilet and offered money. Yuck.

The Korean students that come here are quite innocent with one or two exceptions.
You know, this has upset me! I can tell because I just proofread my entry and there were all kinds of spelling mistakes, forgotten words, dropped letters...out of all the entries I've written to date, I had to edit this one the most! I'm pissed.

Bimbo

I use a big fat dictionary here at work to get ideas for class, and I spied this word, bimbo. Now, I know what a bimbo is, I've watched plenty of Laverne & Shirley, but the dictionary says this: "an attractive but stupid young woman, especially one with loose morals"

How many young women fit that description nowadays? Reminds me of a story.
[Deleted Entry]
Nevermind. I had a story here, but when I scroll through my blog to check spelling, I hate this entry so it's gone. Sometimes I entertain myself with snide comments regarding others, but it doesn't wash over time.
So...deleted entry.

So Tempting

I'm tempted, because this is my diary, to blog about female bodily functions, because it's all I can think about today.

But, on the chance that this blog is actually something people accidentally click in to once in awhile, I restrain myself.

But man, this is one of those days where I'm soooo tempted.